This year’s first flush Darjeeling, Soom Estate. Haven’t had a Darjeeling for a long time and felt like having one again. Surprisingly green dry leaf, yellow-green cup. Medium-light taste, sweet, with that typical herbaceousness.

I bought this tea in Kolkata at one of the few specialty tea shops there, Dolly's. It was expensive. Whole leaves for the most part and highly aromatic with fruity taste. It does the word Darjeeling a good service. Still terrific after 3 years!

ethan wrote:Teadoff, When you are in a shop like Dolly's, how many teas are available from the same estate?

one or two. Dolly's was a disappointment because it is not like a tea shop in Darjeeling where you have 30 different gardens or more being sold. I could find almost nothing in Kolkata and this is a city of 20 million? or so. Bizarre.

Soft, cool day here. The sky mostly grey, alternates between sun and shade and there is a lovely softness and quiet that permeates the day, ending in a beautiful sunset in the west and a rainbow in the east. Rich session with with some Taiwan #18 Hong Yu from Norbu tea...part of a focused pour where I moved on to some Competition Baozhong from Mt. View Tea Village. The Hong Yu tea perfectly matched the red glaze of my Petr Novak 120ml kyusu and the copper tones of the tea setting and brought with it a permeating chaqi.

My first taste of the 2014 first flush Kalej Valley SFTGFOP-1 from Tea Emporium. Very smooth and with a pronounced fruit note on the palate. Both the dry leaf and the liquor have an aroma that I don't know how to describe except to say that it's very pungent, but also pleasant. At $60 for 500 g, this seems like a really good value.

I steep black tea from Nepal for 3 minutes. The ratio I am using is just a bit less than a common ratio of 3 grams for a full cup -- about 8 oz. I said "one gram" but don't weigh. I used 1/3 of the pinch that I would use if I was using my one-cup pot. I used a gaiwan that holds about 1/3 cup. I once weighed my "full" pinch w/ my nephew's scale & it was 3 grams.I have little experience w/ the flavors of Dajeeling-type tea & find them quite bold & strong -- easily too much so w/ too much time or leaf.